What brain scans can reveal, and why they don't always explain symptoms

AI Summary

A study of 2,000 adults in the Netherlands found that routine brain scans sometimes reveal signs of previously unnoticed strokes, small blood-vessel bulges, and apparently benign tumors. The findings illustrate that scan abnormalities may be discovered even when people have no related symptoms.

In 2007, researchers in the Netherlands scanned the brains of 2,000 people aged 45 and over who were going about their ordinary lives. Seven in every 100 had signs of a stroke they never knew they'd had. Nearly two in 100 had a small bulge in a blood vessel, and a similar number had a tumor that appeared to be benign, meaning it was not cancerous.